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Ask Ping!

Dragon’s mission is to make performance driven eyewear fueled by technical innovation and unconventional design. This is the force behind the company’s success and heritage in the moto market and is the design language behind our entire goggle collection, including the new NFXs frameless goggle.

Greetings from one of your former sponsors. Hope everything is well with you and your family. I really enjoy your on-line journalistic rants and 99.9% of the time I completely agree with your conservative viewpoints. Thank you. But I need to bring up a point of contention with your latest “Ask Ping”. You mentioned that you understood that 2010 YZ 450s are selling for $10,000 out the door. While there are probably a few “first on the list” customers who unfortunately paid that much for the new backwards, badass, stewartmobile, that price tag is way more than what they should be selling for. 10K out the door is an example of dealer “gouging,” which just isn’t right. It happens in both the motorcycle and automobile industry when a brand new “latest and greatest” model hits the showroom floor but it is just plain wrong. Here at Motoworld we have had many opportunities to engage in this immoral practice, but I sleep better at night knowing that we never have. It’s not right. MSRP, (manufacturers suggested retail price) on a blue 2010 YZ 450 is $7,999, add 10% for tax, license and doc fees and that is the number that is more than fair for the dealer. Yes, the price of a new MX bike these days is way too high, bring back the 2 strokes! But, greedy dealers hammering an unsuspecting buyer for thousands more than what is fair doesn’t help the situation either.

Take care,

Brian Juhnke

Motoworld of El Cajon

MotoworldRacing.com

Dear Brian,

Thanks for clearing that up. I have a friend that just bought one of those bad boys for more than he should have. Sadly, integrity isn’t a quality that is very easy to find these days and often times consumers pay the price. I know this because I have been shopping for a used truck for the past few weeks and I can confirm that people, for the most part, suck. You can’t imagine how many people roll back odometers and flat out lie about the condition of a vehicle. I’m ready to just buy a horse and call it good. If one more Spanglish-speaking douche nozzle ropes me into driving 100 miles to look at his burned out scrap heap it just might turn into “Black eye Friday” here in southern California. Keep fighting the good fight, Brian.

PING

Ping,

I was at the local bookstore last week. I noticed Seymore Butts has an autobiography on the shelf, but you don’t. Why?I enjoy you on the podcast and I imagine your story to be much more interesting.

Roland J Cannon
SLC, UT

Dear Roland,

I don’t have an autobiography on bookshelves because I haven’t written one. It’s simple, really. Perhaps you want to know why I haven’t written one? I guess my answer would be the same reason that I don’t have a Facebook page, a Myspace page, a Twitter account or any other ridiculous means by which to self-promote; Nobody is that interesting. Nobody. But if I ever get to the point where I decide that I could net a tidy profit by penning a book and pushing it through the local and internet vendors you can bet your sweet ass I would sell out faster than you can say Amazon.com. Thanks in advance for your purchase.

PING

Ping,

Who will make the best return to racing this year? Townley? Langston? Hepler? Other?

Skidder

Dear Skidder,

Good question. It will be great to see Langston back on the track. He never got a chance to back up his national championship and I know he has unfinished business in this sport. But I don’t know if his vision is. I can’t get from my bed to the toilet with one eye closed without slamming into a wall, let alone jump a triple. Hepler is waiting until the nationals to come back and if he can keep his brain from smacking into any one of the sides of his skull he is going to be fast. Time will tell if he has healed up completely. Townley was the only guy that had an answer for Ryan Villopoto at the nationals two years ago. He actually won more races than Ryan but finished second in the series. After that we never got to see what he could do on a big bike. I think he has more to prove than any of the other guys and I’d like to see him have another good shot at it. He says his shoulder is healed. I think any return by these guys where they make it through every round would be a good one.